Nova's POV
Her mother's letter was in her pocket.
She hadn't read past the first paragraph yet. Not because she didn't want to she wanted to desperately, wanted to sit in the east wing room with the painted ceiling and read every word three times until she had memorized the shape of her mother's sentences but because the letter had started with my darling, by the time you read this you will already know what you are and then Nova's hands had started shaking too badly to continue, and Ash had taken the letter gently and folded it back up and said later, when it's quiet, and she had let him.
Later. When it was quiet.
It was not quiet now.
The council chamber was at the top of the palace's north tower, and the walk up the stairs gave Nova exactly enough time to understand, with full clarity, that she was not ready for this and was going to do it anyway.
